One of my favorite recipes is skinny spinach lasagna. My family has always been big lasagna
eaters, but had never had spinach lasagna until I stumbled upon Gina's blog, skinnytaste.com.
Let me tell you, I was in heaven. I'm a pasta eater. I can eat anyone under the
table when it comes to pasta... and cheese. Let's not forget about how yummy
cheese is.
Today, I'm going to
give y'all a quick tutorial of sorts that will help guide you through Gina's
fabulous recipe. Did I mention she calculates calories, weight watchers points,
and a lot of other nutritional facts as well? She is like super woman! I wouldn't
even know where to begin when trying to calculate all that info.
Here is my "I'm
starving and this is how I have memorized the recipe by heart":
First, boil the water
and cook 10 noodles (Gina's recipe calls for 9 noodles, but I'm weird and have
to do an even 10). While the noodles are cooking, I always put my frozen
spinach in a bowl in the microwave to cook for 5 minutes.
After the 5 minutes is up, I squish all the liquid I can out of the
cooked spinach and drain off all excess liquid. Cooked spinach always looks
pretty nasty to me, but I love adding it to all my pasta dishes. My advice is
to not look to closely at it :)
The following are the
rest of the ingredients:
Combine the cooked spinach, 1/2 cup of parmesan, and 15 ounces of ricotta in a bowl and stir.
Add garlic salt and pepper to taste. Trey and I are like garlic saltaholics so
we add a very generous amount. Gina's recipe calls for an egg in this mixture,
but we never buy eggs because I don't eat them. Any form of cooked eggs that I
can see are still in the form of eggs gives me the heebie jeebies. Pop some
eggs in some cookie dough or a cake batter and I'll be right next to you with a
spoon in hand ready to taste.
After mixing those ingredients, pour half a can of pasta sauce into the
baking dish. Set aside the other half.
Next dollop out a few table spoons of the spinach/cheese mixture on to a
cooked lasagna noodle.
Gina's recipe calls for an exact measurement, but lets be honest when
Trey and I are "starving" I challenge myself to make the lasagna in
under five minutes. Trey was getting a little antsy when I kept stopping the
process to take pictures so I knew I needed to book it. Do you think there is a
speed lasagna making contest that I could enter? First place is totally mine.
Okay back to the
recipe. After spreading the mixture out on the noodle, roll up the noodle and
place it in the baking dish. Repeat 9 more times :)
After all 10 noodles are rolled up and you have poured the remaining
pasta sauce on top, you are ready to shove that baby in the oven! (That did not
sound right.) Let me try again, gently place the baking dish in the oven after
preheating your oven to 375 degrees. I generally just wait until the sauce
around the lasagna rolls is boiling. Then it is ready to be served and
devoured.
Speaking of being devoured. There was no time for an after picture, but
Gina has a really pretty one on her blog :)
I hope this becomes a staple in your family's recipe line up! It makes
for great left overs and for me to say that is rare. I usually hate left overs,
but not a drop of this lasagna goes to waste at my house. Anyone have a favorite recipe that has a healthy spin to it? Please share!
